Be An Icon Of Yourselves: Odisha Governor

Bhubaneswar: “Don’t fall into the trap of material goddesses of ignorance, illusion, corruption, conspiracy and diplomacy. Be an icon of yourselves and never imitate others,” said  Governor of Odisha Ganeshi Lal while addressing graduating students of Kalinga Institute of Information Technology (Deemed to be University) during its 14^th convocation on Saturday.

“Every country of the world is striving for economic supremacy. You are going to face a world divided by the lines of religion, regions, colour, languages, etc. and the biggest challenge before you is to vanquish these divisions,” he said.

Even when in their chosen careers, they should not forget to smile, be kind and find peace in the laps of nature, he advised.

“India is not only a country with her land, rivers, mountains and habitations, but for Indians, she is much beyond these things – she is the divine Goddess. Odisha is the state for humanity at large. Founder of KIIT, KISS, Achyuta Samanta, is an example of the same,” he added.

As many as 5695 students of 2017–18 graduating batch of KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, received their degrees of which, 77 students got PhD in various disciplines.

The university conferred Honoris Causa Degrees of DSc on Prof. (Dr.) Kahan and Prof. Dinabandhu Sahoo, director of Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Imphal, and D.Litt. on The Rt. Hon. The Baroness Usha Kumari Prashar, CBE, PC, UK; Niklaus-Samuel Gugger, member of Swiss Parliament, Switzerland; Prabhu Gaur Gopal Das, life coach, monk and spiritual motivational speaker; Kabir Bedi, Indian film writer, producer, director and actor; and Dr. Md. Sabur Khan, chairman, board of trustees, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In his address, chief speaker Kahan stated, “I have visited many places in the world, but never saw institutions like KIIT and KISS. Two institutions are indeed examples for the whole world”.

In her acceptance speech, The Baroness Prashar said this institution has inspired her the most in her working career. “Calamities can be turned into opportunities and students can learn this lesson from the life story of Prof. Samanta,” said Prabhu Gaur Gopal Das.